TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – AJ McCarron and Barrett Jones have been Alabama football teammates for four years, but they weren’t roommates until this month when they shared a cocoon during preseason camp.

What did Jones learn about the starting quarterback?

"He's messy,” the star center said. “Surprising from him. Kind of leaves his things everywhere. I guess it wasn't our permanent rooms, so it's hard to really judge how he would be as a roommate. I was like, 'AJ, I'm not your maid. I'm not going to clean up your trash.' We won't get into that.”

It’s quite the odd couple. Jones is the ultimate student-athlete. McCarron is the ultimate student of football.

McCarron has studied Michigan’s defense intensively. The second-ranked Crimson Tide will open its 2012 season at 7 p.m. CDT Saturday against the eighth-ranked Wolverines in Arlington, Texas.

“I think I know a lot about them,” McCarron said. “I know what they like to do in certain situations. I know how they're going to play a lot of things. It will be exciting come Saturday to get out there and actually do it.”

No telling how many hours he spent in the summer watching film of Michigan and other opponents.

“Summer, I broke everybody down,” said McCarron, who worked closely with Jeff Norrid, one of four offensive analysts on coach Nick Saban’s support staff.

“He knows everything there is about defense. Through the summer, we broke each opponent down week by week, but probably in the past two, 2½ weeks, we've watched a ton of film on (Michigan). Then me and him are up here at least 3½, four hours a day. We'll come an hour or so before practice and then the rest after. … It'll be fun come Saturday.”

This is the quarterback that Saban has compared to a basketball gym rat. Right tackle D.J. Fluker said McCarron and Saban are like brothers because of the passion for football that they share.

This is the quarterback who had to win a starting position battle with since-departed Phillip Sims last season, who went from caterpillar to butterfly in four months. He said he didn’t really start feeling comfortable until Week 8 in a 37-6 victory over Tennessee, when he finally felt the game starting to slow down.

This is the quarterback who had a key pass intercepted and missed open receivers a few times in a 9-6 overtime loss to LSU but came back to become the offensive MVP in the rematch, a 21-0 victory in the BCS Championship Game.

This year, McCarron could become the first quarterback to lead Alabama to consecutive national championships. This game could be a springboard to individual glory. The 2011 caretaker could metamorphose into a 2012 playmaker. Saban has said he likes the chemistry he has seen developing between McCarron and the Tide’s receivers.

“I expect great things,” Jones said. “We're putting more on him this year, giving him more responsibility at the line of scrimmage, letting him make more decisions and calls at the line. I expect him to handle that really well.”

Jones said he and McCarron speak often, comparing observations about defenses.

“He's really starting to understand why I'm making my calls and … he's starting to understand more about fronts and defense in general,” Jones said. “It's kind of the next step for a quarterback. You want to learn coverages, and then you want to learn what the whole defense is doing.”

So what is the whole Michigan defense doing when McCarron studies film?

“They like to do a bunch of crazy things, try to confuse you,” he said. “They'll spread everybody out, walk them around. Show different one way, blitz another. Do a bunch of different things, but I feel like our coaching staff has done a really good job of breaking them down, what they like to do. I guess we'll see what else they have in store for us come Saturday.”

Like Alabama, Michigan has had eight months to prepare for this game. McCarron doesn’t expect that to matter.

“They're Michigan,” he said. “They're not going to change what they do. Any time you play a big-time program like that, they know what they do, and they know what they're capable of, and they're going to do it. You've got to stop them. It'll be a good challenge for us come Saturday. It's something I'm looking forward to.”

Almost all of the pregame hype has focused on the game’s other quarterback, Michigan star Denard Robinson. That doesn’t bother McCarron.

“I don't really worry about everybody else,” he said. “I just kind of go out and do what I'm capable of doing and play the way I can. I let my game talk for itself, but I don't really. ... More power to them. That's awesome that you get all that publicity.”